Ellie: "Mom, can you put my underwear on? Because I guess I'm going to pee on the chair."

Ellie: "Mom, do you love Jesus?"
Me: "Yes, I do. Do you love Jesus?"
Ellie: "No; I love Daddy."

So, if we have the TV on, it's usually to the girls' shows (Wild Kratts, Daniel Tiger, etc.). But once in a while if the girls are driving me crazy and I need a break, I'll turn on a Property Brothers or something. Ellie calls these "boring shows." I turned one of them on sometime this week. Ellie: "This is a boring show. This is a great boring show."

Ellie: "Mom, our house is amazing."

One thing Zelda's been doing this week is pointing out if people are sad. On one of the shows they were watching, an elephant got hurt and was crying. She pointed at him and said, "Sad. Crying. Crying." Then later this week, Ellie was having a tantrum and got a time out in her room. Zelda pointed at her door (we could hear Ellie having her tantrum on the other side), and said "Sad." Then this morning Zelda brought me and Jason her little dolly and pointed at it, saying, "Sad." "Oh, she's sad? She needs a bottle," we told her. So Zelda pretended to feed her the bottle. "Now she's happy!" We told her. And Zelda smiled and laughed and liked that. Then she went through the whole thing again.

Cat was inside one time this week, and Zelda kept saying "hug" and hugging him. She also said "Cat" very clearly.

This is from a little while ago, but I want to write it down so I remember. When Zelda plays with cars or airplanes, she makes a "bbbbbb" sound (like their engine) as she pushes them around.Well, we have this little playmobile snail that playmobile people can sit on and ride, and one day she was pushing that around too making the "bbbbbb" sound.

What we did this week

Mostly our week was spent playing. It was warm and wonderful and spring-y outside, so the girls and I spent a lot of time outside this week. We even walked down to the creek at the end of our street and played in the water a little bit. Jason didn't have a test on Wednesday like he usually does, so his week was a little bit more relaxed, too, which was nice.

My big thing I was able to get done this week was paint all the trim and the walls in the kitchen.

Ellie's been daydreaming a lot recently. She'll kind of be staring off into space, and we'll ask her what she's thinking about, and she'll tell us, "a dream." And then she'll tell us a long story (again, usually involving Chris and Martin from Wild Kratts) about what it's about.

The girls also washed dishes this week:

Zelda's face in this one cracks me up.

And played with the quiet book:

And read books:

Instead of naps, Ellie likes to "rest" on the couch. She usually requests chocolate milk to drink as she's "resting."

Ellie took the next two pictures all by herself:

And here's some of our outside time:

Zelda and I went outside first. I told Ellie we were going out, and she could join us if she wanted (she was playing inside, wearing her swimsuit {because she wanted to}). I put her flipflops by the door for her. About ten minutes later she showed up at the door, wearing a shirt, underwear, and different shoes. She got the outfit all by herself and put it on all by herself.

Also, yesterday Ellie gave herself orange tiger stripes with marker, all over her arms and legs and face.

Right now our grass is kind of a meadow. It's not long enough to break out the lawn mower, so the little wildflowers are just blooming and being happy.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Ellie, pointing to her underwear - "These are for daytime." Pointing to her pullups - "And these are for night time." Picking up one of Zelda's diapers - "Are these for night time?"
Me: "Those are for all the time, because Zelda doesn't know how to use a toilet. She's never gone pee in the toilet. Should we teach her how to do that?"
Ellie, excited: "I'll teach her!" Runs in to me and Jason's bedroom, where Zelda is. "Zelda, you go pee and poo in the toilet right now." Comes back to me. "I teached her how to go pee and poo in the toilet."

One day when we were in the backyard after it rained, Ellie picked up her bucket and saw that there was water in it. Ellie: "I have water! Heavenly Father got water in here."

Ellie: "Mom, I very like you." (Awwww. :))

Ellie: "Mom, I'm out of these stickers again. This is a disakter!"

The girls

There's so much about the girls I want to tell you right now, I don't know where to begin.

Ellie, wearing my clothes to go outside in the rain.

"Wild Kratts" is still Ellie's favorite show. She still calls it "Creature Powers" most of the time. Zelda loves it too, and calls it "Wai wai wai" (from the opening song, which says "Wild wild wild Kratts, Wild wild wild Kratts." Zelda will sometimes come up to me and point at the TV, and say "Show?" and then hand me the remote and start saying "Wai wai wai."

Ellie's been telling me stories lately. She'll stand next to me and just ramble on and on, telling me some make believe story involving her and either people she knows or her favorite characters from the shows she watches. A lot of Ellie's make believe involves playing with the characters Chris and Martin from Wild Kratts. She pretends that they're really tiny, and talks to them and they talk to her and then she'll run around the house having adventures with them and using "creature powers."

One day this week, right before bedtime, Ellie got a glue stick and glued the bottom of her feet, and then tried to climb up the wall because she had "gecko powers." The glue, according to her, was her "toe pads." About ten minutes later, we found her with the glue stick again. This time she had rubbed a ton of glue off on the wall in two spots, and was lying down and putting her feet up to those spots.

That reminds me of another little thing from a couple weeks ago. Ellie had a glue stick then, too, and she glued two "googly eyes" and some little poofballs on the hall wall to make a smiley face. Then she was saying that the house had a face.

This week Ellie also scratched her elbow on something, and for the last couple days she keeps showing me her elbow and telling me that "I broke my arm a little."

And speaking of her arms, she keeps getting toilet paper rolls, putting two on each arm, and then walks around calling herself Robot Ellie and those are her robot arms. (She also painted a picture of a "robot princess castle" this week.) And at bedtime, after she brushes her own teeth, she likes "Robot Mommy" to finish brushing them for her. I started that like a month ago when I was trying to get her to let me brush her teeth, and she liked it so much that she insists on doing it almost every night. I just have to talk in a robot voice while I brush - and she lets me get all her teeth. It's great!

Zelda - oh, Zelda. She is really entering into the "terrible twos" stage. (She's sixteen months old - this is when Ellie started it, too.) The words we seem to hear the most from her are "no," "my," and "mine." Last night she was reading a book at bedtime, and I told her, "It's time for prayer, Zelda." Usually, she immediately folds her arms. But last night, she told me, "No!" I looked at Jason. We were both kind of surprised, since she usually likes prayers so much. "It's prayertime, Zelda." I said again. "No!" she answered. "Zelda, it's time for prayer." This time she flopped herself sideways out of my lap and yelled "No! Donwanto!" Jason and I laughed and were again surprised - we didn't know she knew the phrase "don't want to." We said the prayer with Ellie and tried again a few minutes later with Zelda, and she was back to her usual prayer-loving self. She even made us say like three prayers. So that give you an example of how contrary she's being at times.

She's repeating and saying so many words that it's hard to keep track, but some of the longer phrases she's said this week are "get down," "don't want to," and "this daddy's shoe."

One time this week I put Zelda down for a nap in her room. When she woke up a few hours later and I went to go get her, I opened the door to find Cat sleeping on Ellie's bed. (Cat's our neighbor's cat that we have over all the time.) I didn't realize I'd shut him in there with her at naptime. Whoops! But he was content.

Later that same day I was putting clothes away in Ellie and Zelda's bedroom with Ellie. While I was putting clothes away, Zelda went somewhere else in the house. It was nice outside, and so I got some clothes to dress the girls in so we could play outside. At this point I noticed that I hadn't heard Zelda for like five minutes - she was being too quiet. I walked out to the family room - she wasn't there. I walked into the dining room, and saw that the laundry room door was open and Zelda was gone! We almost always have the chain locked at the top of the door, but it wasn't on that day and she'd gotten out. "Zelda!" I yelled, running outside. "Awdabada?" I heard her little voice from somewhere in the side yard. She was in grassy dirt and trees between our house and the neighbor's, barefoot, surrounded by those pokey balls that fall from trees. She put her arms up for me to pick her up, and I got her and brought her back inside. Aaaah! That's the first time she's ever escaped.

It's been really warm most of this week, and we've played outside almost every day. A few times Ellie and Zelda have gotten in the wagon and I've pulled them up the street to our stop sign and back. Both times that we've done this they've played this game with each other and me where Ellie will yell "Stop!" and I'll stop, and Zelda will say, "Go!" and I'll go, and they'll both giggle and do it over and over again.

Ellie swinging in the hammock.

Also, Zelda likes the number 9. When I'm counting with her, it's the only number she ever says. And one day this week she was on my lap and I was looking at a magazine, and she pointed to the number 9 on a page and said "9!" So somehow she knows what it looks like, too.

Whew! I know that was a lot but I want to remember all of it in the future.

What we did this week

Jason made a great potty chart for Ellie. Ellie already goes to the potty consistently, the problem lately has been that she expects a treat after every single time she goes. To remedy that, Jason made this cool chart that has stars every five spaces. Every time Ellie goes to the potty, she gets to put a sticker on the chart. And every time she lands on a star (so, every five potty trips), she gets a treat. Ellie loves it, and it's really cut down on the treats she's been getting.

We've also had a couple holidays this week! We had Pi Day last Saturday, which was fun. Jason and I ate some pie at night. On Sunday we had some friends from church over, and we had chicken pot pie (not planned for Pi Day, but it felt like we were continuing the celebration) and finished off the Pi Day desert pies.

Then Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day. Some time during the day Ellie asked for water, and I pulled out a glass and (without her seeing) put a drop of food coloring at the bottom. Then I poured water into the glass, and she was amazed that it was turning green as I poured. I told her it was because it was St. Patrick's day, and then for the rest of the day she kept expecting food to magically turn green when she touched it. Whoops, haha! I did do it again with their apple sauce; I put a drop of food coloring on their spoon without them looking and then stirred it in front of them, so to them it looked like it was magic.

Later for dinner we had green macaroni and cheese, a green salad, and then green cupcakes for desert.

This week Jason also got our garden started. We're mostly doing it in pots this year, up on our deck. He got three tomato plants, a strawberry plant, a parsley plant, a basil plant, and two lavender plants. Here are some pictures of the girls playing out in the rain yesterday, where you can see the plants (and the girls having fun):

And as for what I've been up to this week, I painted the trim in the bathroom, repainted the ceiling, and painted the walls. So our bathroom's all done! And I've been making (and am almost finished with) our "2013 part 2" photobook.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Ellie was playing with the ipad and opened a giraffe game. She asked me if I wanted (on the app) to take the giraffe to play dress up, or go to the boutique, or put on makeup. I said put on makeup.
Ellie: "And make her pretty? Make her pretty like you? Mom, you're so pretty." (then gives me a hug and a kiss)

Cleaning up the bandaids: "I'm making Jesus happy!"

Ellie lying on the couch, claiming she was sick: "Mom, can you get the thermodeler?" (thermometer)

What we did this week

This week was a really productive one. We've been continuing to do a bunch of house projects. For our date night last Friday we scraped the popcorn off our bathroom ceiling, and since then we've repainted it and Jason's installed crown molding. Now for the bathroom we just have to finish caulking the crown molding, then paint it and repaint the trim around the window, then paint the walls (we're painting them a different color). And it'll be awesome!

I've been repainting the trim in the rest of the house (whoever last painted this house got the wall color all over the trim, and it's been driving me crazy ever since we moved in), and this week I finished repainting the trim and the walls in the hall and entryway. I also repainted the front door, and all the trim and windowsills in the dining room. It all looks sooo much better. I'm not sure which room I'll paint next; I need to make a plan of action. We're not changing the colors in the house to anything crazy; we're actually painting most of the rooms the same color that they were. They all (and especially, especially the trim) just need a fresh coat of paint. I've had paint in my hair and on my hands all week.

A little side project I did yesterday and the day before was shorten all of the blinds in the house. They're those faux wood blinds that pull up and down, and they all had a bunch of extra slats at the bottom. I watched a youtube video to remember how to remove the extra slats, and then did it to all the blinds that needed it. And they all look sooo much better too.

I'm also spray painting some stuff that needs it; you know that aged yellow color that white plastic turns to after a couple years? Well, some random stuff in our house is that color. I took out and spray painted our doorbell cover thing from our hall, and the doorbells themselves, and also a bunch of the blind pulls (I don't know what they're actually called, but those little things you grab when you pull the blinds). And everything's looking so much better! Instead of looking fifteen years old, it all looks new. (Can you tell how much I love paint?)

Jason's spring break is over so he's been back in classes all week, and had a test on Wednesday. Today he's up in Raleigh doing a Habitat for Humanity service project. He also spread out this bug stuff all over our lawn this week that should keep the bugs away, which is important here. There are so many bugs in the lawn when summer comes.

Maybe because we've been so busy doing other things, but we took almost no pictures this week. I took a total of like ten pictures, which I think is a record low for me in the last year. Here are a couple we did take. We took them to send to Jason when he was at school one day:

Zelda's getting so good at communicating verbally. She answers both "Uhuh" and "No" now, and will say things that sound darn close like the phrases she means. For example, she'll reach for my food and say, "Iwasome" or "wansome." (I want some.) In addition to saying "My" to indicate she wants something, she's also been pointing and saying "I" this week, in the same context. She says "up" and "down" and "battime" (bathtime).

For some reason, she's had a real hard time taking naps this week. I hope it's only because she's had a cold, and will soon be back to normal. Her no-nap grumpiness is something that hasn't been fun to deal with every day.

At the same time, Ellie's acting older and more mature. Both me and Jason have noticed it. She's just acting older. She's really mellowing out and becoming easier and happier all day long, which is a welcome change. She's been a high energy kid ever since she was a baby, and toddler years were insane, so it's great that she's just starting to be consistently calm and happy most of the time.

This has been a wordy Captain's Log, but I just want to add two other things before I sign off: last night for date night Jason and I had a cowboy date. We had steak and potatoes and corn and biscuits for dinner (with peach cobbler for dessert), and then watched "Support Your Local Gunfighter." It was really fun. (If you haven't, you should watch "Support Your Local Sheriff," which is the movie that comes before the one we watched, and is great.)

The other thing I want to say is that today is Pi Day!!! And a big Pi Day - 3/14/15, and at 9:26:53 it'll just be magical. Jason and I have some frozen pies in our freezer to celebrate with later.

Welcome to the record of our family's adventures! My name is Jocelyn. My husband Jason and I have been best friends ever since we started high school. We got married on April 23, 2010, in the Newport Beach Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We live in North Carolina with our beautiful little girls, Ellie, Zelda, and Susanna.